


Putting Back Together Hearts Broke Long Ago

by Lilly_C



Series: Various Bingos [17]
Category: Taggart (TV)
Genre: 1970s, Absent Parents, Bullying, Canon Compliant, Childhood, Community: cottoncandy_bingo, Friendship, Gen, One Shot, Parent Death, Past Child Abuse, Pre-Canon, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-05
Updated: 2014-07-05
Packaged: 2018-02-04 12:29:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1779148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilly_C/pseuds/Lilly_C
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fighting an old war, somebody else’s war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Putting Back Together Hearts Broke Long Ago

**Author's Note:**

> Written for cotton candy bingo, prompt used was characters as children (past, AU or de-aged).
> 
> No spoilers, set pre-series and pre-canon with a focus on the events of bullying which were mentioned in the episode Crossing The Line.
> 
> The title is from the song Angels Running by Cher and the summary is a quote from Crossing The Line.
> 
> Any mistakes are my own and unintentional.

_“No one can see the seeds of friendship, but they grow into something beautiful” - Winnie the Pooh_

~

“What was that?” Robbie asked upon hearing the echoes of a nearby fight.

“Probably nothing love,” Evelyn said, “Leave it alone.”

“I can’t mum,” Robbie said as he slipped his shoes on, quickly adding, “Someone’s in trouble.” before breaking into a run and heading towards the loch, which to him was the logical option for the source of the noises he had heard moments ago.

When he got there he watched on in dismay as several girls were holding the head of one girl under the water, there were others on the banks watching and cheering as she struggled against their combined weights to get her head above the surface to take on some much needed air.

“LET HER GO!” Robbie yelled, shocked to see that the scuffle was more serious than he initially thought.

Rather than returning to the cottage for help he went down to the water and got involved in the fracas. It took him several attempts to get the bullies off of their younger and smaller target and when he eventually got them all away from her, he helped her out of the water carrying her to a higher part of the embankment.

They were sitting beneath a willow tree, the only clear sounds were Jackie’s hard, repetitive coughs as she tried to clear the lake water from her system. 

“How are you feeling?” Robbie asked, concerned that the girl hadn’t spoken since he came to her aid.

“I’ll be okay,” she quietly answered. “You didn’t have to save me, you know.”

“When I got there it was seven on one and I couldn’t just stand on the sides and do nothing. What was that all about anyway?” He felt that he had to ask her because you don’t try to drown someone for no reason.

“It’s nothing. They’re just bored and escalating.”

Realising that she was avoiding answering his first question, he then asked, “How long has it been going on for?”

Jackie closed her eyes for a moment before answering. “Been happening for a while, the last few weeks of school were awful and I tried everything to get out of going but my dad made me go.”

Robbie placed a comforting hand on Jackie’s shoulder, removing it when she flinched at the gesture. “I’m sorry, I was just trying to….” he paused.

He was sweet, charming and although she liked him she wasn’t yet comfortable at being touched in an intimate way by a nameless stranger. “I know that but I don’t know who you are.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to take you uncomfortable.”

“It’s okay and stop saying sorry.”

Robbie laughed at her comment. “Noted.”

They sat in silence for a while watching the long grass gently swaying back and forth in the breeze.

“What brings you to Garsden?” Jackie asked.

“My mum’s visiting Ida, her best friend. I wasn’t supposed to be here but I got in trouble at home and had to come with her.”

Clearly intrigued by the way that he had used the word trouble to explain his presence in her home town, Jackie probed, “What did you do?”

“I stole a car for a dare and was caught on the Ellon Road just past Easter Hatton when I’d crashed into a pylon.”

“Were you injured?”

“I had some cuts and bruises from the crash but it was the telling off I got from mum that was much worse but I’m thankful that my dad’s not around.”

Jackie took a moment to really look at him and thought _whatever happened to him, he must have gone through hell_ especially when the sadness she saw in his eyes threatened to consume him. In some ways it mirrored her own but she had learned long ago how to put a brave face on the pain.

Feeling uncomfortable at opening up to a stranger, he said, “Tell me something about you.”

“There’s not much to tell.”

He knew that she was being evasive and went with the events that lead to their meeting. “Those bullies earlier,” he started, hoping that she’d fill in the blanks for him.

“Are people that I used to be friends. Up until my mum died Teresa was one of my best friends and then I became enemy number one. To them I’ll always be different because I don’t have a mum.”

Losing a parent at a young age was something that he understood, although his dad wasn’t dead he had spent most of his life trying to ease that pain. “They’re parasites,” he scoffed, “All bullies are.”

Jackie smiled for the first time. “My dad and brothers tell me the same thing, that and _hand and no hat_ , it means good day and no troubles.”

“What happened to your mum? You don’t have to tell me.”

“She died of complications from pneumonia four years ago. I was nine and there isn’t a day that I don’t think of her and what life would be life if she was still alive.”

Robbie didn’t try to stop the tears from rolling down his cheeks. “Wish I could say that about my dad.”

“What did he do?”

“All sorts. He was a bastard.”

Noticing that she’d hit upon a sore point for him she tread carefully with her next question. “When did you last see him?”

“I was about four and it was the day before me and mum left. He’d beat her really badly and also attacked me, we had to leave for our own safety.”

she didn't need to know anymore, it was the abuse in his past that was still hurting him in the present and that it would continue to hurt him until he found the courage to start dealing with it. “If your dad was around when you got arrested what would he have done to you?”

Letting out a shaky breath, Robbie answered, “I wouldn’t be sitting here with you if he was still around. He would have beaten me badly enough to kill me. He used his body and he also used whatever items were lying around that could double up as weapons—knives, hammers, crow bar, glass.”

Jackie released a barely audible, “Jesus.”

Robbie got up from the ground and extended his hand out to help jackie up. “it’s getting dark, I’ll see you home.”

The short walk to Jackie’s home was full of laughter and joking, their way of easing the weight of the painful conversations they’d had during the last few hours.

Stopping at the gate, jackie said, “This is me, thanks for today and walking me home.”

“My pleasure,” Robbie said as he turned to walk back to the cottage on the other side of the loch as jackie made her way to the front door.

“Who are you?” She asked, “I’d like to know who saved my life.”

“Robbie Ross.”

“thank you Robbie.”

Before she went inside he said, “Same question to you.”

“Jackie Reid,” she answered before closing the door.

**Author's Note:**

> With having the options of past, AU or de-aged within the original prompt, I opted to write past as it fit in better for me in terms of timeline organisation and because AU and de-aged do not grab me creatively. As there is some ambiguity with the characters current ages, they’re never actually mentioned at any time in canon and for the purposes of this one shot, Jackie was 13 and Robbie was 16 when she was almost drowned by the girls at the loch. In my handwritten notes I had the events of bullying happening in the summer of 1976.
> 
> The events of this work are compliant with the following canon references: the death of Jackie’s mother when she was young (Fearful Lightning) the cause of death was never revealed in canon, being bullied when she lived in Garsden (Crossing The Line) and Robbie’s absent father (Safer), however I decided not to use Jackie’s admission of being a bully to Stuart (Out Of Bounds) because I believe that occurred later than the events in Garsden.


End file.
